Official Magazine of the Impreza WRX Owners Club of South Aust. Inc.
Rex Driver
Autumn edition — May 2013
www.wrxsa.com
33 Woodlands Tce, Edwardstown, SA, 5039
Official Magazine of the
Impreza WRX Owners Club
Contents Regulars………………………………
Feature articles…………………………………………...
2
Club Info
3
Look who’s Torquing
5
Family Fun Water Ski Day
3
New Members
9
CAMS Award Dinner
4
Editorial
10–12
Damien's Coastal Bash
13
2014 WRX Concept
8 23
S&J WRXSA Club Championships Eblens SA Motorsport Tyres
14-17
OzGymkahna Round 1
18-19
WRXSA River Cruise
29
Shannons
20-22
Mount Alma Hillclimb
34-35 Club Partners Ads
24-27
Rallye Wattle Range
36 RD Advert Pricing
28-29
Goolwa Cruise
6-7
30-32 OzGymkahna Round 2 33
Remembering Possum Bourne
Article & photo Acknowledgements Well done guys—without your input the Rex Driver would not be possible Spiro Koulianos Seth Coultas Frank Kutsch of Stick ‘n’ Stones Photography Gary Wolstencroft Derek Murdoch Damien Hirst Garry Dodd
Front cover: Photo by : Frank Kutsche — OzGymkahna Contents page: - photo by : Seth Coultas - River Cruise
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CLUB INFO Impreza WRX Owners Club of South Australia Inc.
2012/2013 Elected Club Committee:
PO Box 400, Unley, SA 5061
President:
Club Address:
Incorporated in Adelaide, South Australia - May 1999 Certificate number: AA0024461E
Spiro Koulianos
Mobile: 0402 311 294
Web Site Address:
Vice President:
http:\\www.wrxsa.com
Gary Wolstencroft Mobile: 0413 391 742
E-Mail Address:
Secretary:
Information: Club Committee: Magazine:
Sam Jongenelis
info@wrxsa.com committee@wrxsa.com rexdriver@wrxsa.com
Membership: The Impreza WRX Owners Club of South Australia is a club for motoring enthusiasts with a passion for performance cars. Our focus is on performance oriented All-Wheel Drive Subaru vehicles, including the Impreza WRX, STi, Liberty RS and Forester GT, but membership is considered from owners of other vehicles.
Mobile: 0402 936 908
Treasurer: Jeremy Porter
Mobile: 0414 961 555
Membership Officer: Neil Branum
General Positions: Sam Jonganelis (Cruise Co-ordinator)
Club Magazine:
Lee Chesson (Motorsport Co-ordinator)
The Club magazine Rex Driver is published quarterly and distributed free to all members. Contributions are welcomed from Club Members and interested parties alike and may be submitted by post or email to the Editor direct at: gary@wrxsa.com
Seth Coultas ( Business Liaison)
Matthew Cherry (Webmaster)
CAMS OFFICER Matt Knighton
Club Patrons:
Use Club’s mobile number 0413 025 697 for other enquiries to other committee members
Cody Crocker, Team Subaru Sam Brand, BrandMotorsport
Layout & design Gary Wolstencroft / Seth Coultas (Magazine Editors) Email: rexdriver@wrxsa.com or noopy@internode.on.net
All contents Š 2013 Impreza WRX Owners Club of South Australia Inc.
DISCLAMER: The views and/or opinions expressed in any/all articles in this magazine are not to be considered the views and/or opinions of the Club, editorial staff, or any committee member. While all care is taken in the preparation of this publication, the Club, its committee and its contributors accept no responsibility for the accuracy of the whole or any part of the magazine. The club wishes to highlight that that any modifications made to your car may void your factory warranty, and any racing / sporting events may void your insurance cover. Articles regarding either of these matters are for interest value only and are not recommended to our members.
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Get more BANG for your $$$ Advertise in the S.A. magazine that reaches more Rex Drivers (& other high performance Subaru drivers) Contact: Gary Wolstencroft or email: advertise@wrxsa.com
See page 36 of Rex Driver for costs
Spiro Koulianos Club President
Welcome to the latest edition of our distinguished magazine; this issue is arriving a little behind on schedule, so I’m sure members are eagerly awaiting. As always the committee has been busy organising great events for members and so the magazine is packed full of great content from club events and non club events. If you have jumped onto wrxsa.com lately you would have noticed some major changes. The website and forum have both been upgraded, everything has been revamped and definitely looking a lot sexier. The changes not only allow for fresh content to be more easily updated and accessed, but a lot of extra site functionality has been added for a better browsing experience. The upgrade has also allowed us to make the web registration process a lot simpler and quicker, and to compliment this we have also introduced payment via PayPal. Now all your membership and other club payments can be done online, simply and quickly. Lots of exciting changes and there is plenty of fresh content on both the site and within the forum so jump online now. There has been a fair bit of motorsport action going on as of late and popularity has picked up a fair bit which is great to see. Quite a few club members are out there getting their beasts onto the track and pushing them to see what they can really do. With so many different championship events and with some being so safe for your daily driver there really is no excuse for getting out there, especially considering how much fun it is. If you've been thinking about getting involved, now is definitely the time and if you really aren't sure at least come out and support your fellow club members. I'd like to finish up by saying once again the committee really is working hard for the club, we have made some great progress in 2013 building up this fantastic club. Our club partners are a big part of that success and I am happy to announce that Seth Coultas has recently been appointed as the club business partner liaison, a position that was previously unfilled. With the current committee members and now Seth on-board, I can't wait to see what is in store for WRXSA and its members. Spiro Koulianos
Welcome New Club Members! Club Secretary, Sam Jongenelis, and Membership Officer, Neil Branum Fellow members please make new members feel welcome at future events. We hope they will enjoy their time in the club, and wish them the very best.
425 - Brett Foster 426 - Steve Turner 427 - Steve Russell 428 - Chase Antunovic 429 - Hamish Johnstone 430 - Bryce Haggett 431 - Brendan Powell 432 - Brendan Moore 433 - Ben Wilden 434 - Mikhail Kuleshov 436 - Derek Murdoch 437 - Reno Viscione 438 - Bevan Fernandez 439 - Russell Badenoch 440 - Troy Higgins 441 - Andrew Kemmler 442 - John Zaccheus 443 - Anthony Terminelli
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EDITORIAL
l e e h W e h t Behind Seth Coultas Editor in Lieu
Look out! Gary has let me behind the wheel for this issue of the REX Driver magazine, I’ll try not to crash and hopefully you all get a bit of enjoyment along the way as well. For this Autumn edition we have a couple of great cruise articles written by one of our newest members Derek Murdoch, and one by Damien for his annual Coastal Bash. If you liked the OzGymkhana coverage from the last magazine then get excited we have even more action from Tailem Bend, this time with two more events being run and won. We also have rally coverage from Frank Kutsche, hi ll climbs galore with Mt Alma and the first round of the Winter Cup at Collingrove that well and truly lived up to its name. It has been a busy start to the year with plenty to read about so lets get stuck in!
Seth Coultas
For the Australia Day long weekend this year we decided to try something a bit more family friendly than a regular cruise. When Sam offered to take everyone out for a ride in his family’s boat on the Murray we jumped at the chance. Sam was there nice and early setting everything up so that when the rest of us arrived we were able to jump in and go for a spin. The Sturt Reserve at Murray Bridge is a great spot for a BBQ with plenty of open space, green grass & shade. While the weather started out great with everyone having a good time both on the boat and relaxing on the shore, by the time lunch time rolled around things took a turn for the worse. As we fired up the BBQ we were hit with what can only be called a torrential downpour accompanied by howling winds, followed by steady rain. Considering a few of us were in T -shirts and shorts it wasn’t the most pleasant way to cook lunch and there may have been a few blue lips. But everyone huddled together under the BBQ shelter and the mood stayed cheerful. Some of us eventually retreated into the safety of the nearby coffee shop to warm up and soon the weather cleared up, ready for a nice cruise home. I want to thank Sam again for organising a great day and hopefully we can do it again next summer. Fingers crossed the weather works in our favour next time!
Seth Coultas
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WRXSA The 2013 WRXSA Club Championship is well and truly underway with a number of great events that have been run and won. Round 1 was something new for the club, a modern regularity out at Mallala. Only one of our newer members Ben attended but unfortunately engine trouble prevented him from starting. Round 2 saw things kick of much more successfully with 5 WRXSA members representing the club at the years first round of OzGymkhana. Round 3 was the AIR Street Drags, this was another new event for the club championship but unfortunately it stalled on the line as the organisers cancelled the event due to a lack of competitors. It seems that Adelaide's racers prefer a few corners to spice up the action. Round 4 was the years first Motorkhana with 3 members in attendance, 2 experienced veterans (Garry & Allen) providing tips and advice for the relative new-comer Rob. Round 5 was a big one, 2 days at Adelaide’s fastest Hill Climb, Mount Alma. If you haven’t visited the website for a while do it now and check out some great clips from the weekend. Round 6 was a wet and wild Sunday at Collingrove for round 1 of the Winter Cup Series, and it sure lived up to its name as you can see in the photo below. Round 7 was the 2nd OzGymkhana of the year and was once again a very popular event with 7 members in attendance, and another fantastic result for WRXSA. Stay tuned for even more Club Racing action, and remember, if you are interested in participating just jump onto the forums and you will have plenty of members ready and able to provide you with all the information you need to get started. See you out there!
Seth Coultas
Mt Alma at it’s best, and Collingrove at it’s worst...
WRXSA Club Championship Calendar 2013 Round 1: 10 February 2013 - Modern Regularity, Mallala Motorsport Park Round 2: 17 February 2013 - OzGymkhana Round 1, Tailem Bend Motorsport Park Round 3: 17 March 2013 - Street Drags, Adelaide International Raceway Round 4: 24 March 2013 - Porsche Club Motorkhana, Mallala Motorsport Park Round 5: 6 -7 April 2013 - Mt Alma Mile Hillclimb, Mt Alma Round 6: 21 April 2013 - Hillclimb, Winter Cup Round 1, Collingrove Round 7: 5 May 2013 - Oz Gymkhana Round 2, Tailem Bend Motorsport Park Round 8: 19 May 2013 - Modern Regularity, Mallala Motorsport Park Round 9: 26 May 2013 - Hillclimb, Multi Club Round 1, Collingrove Round 10: 2 June 2013 - Porsche Club Supersprint Round 3, Mallala Motorsport Park Round 11: 23 June 2013 - Hillclimb, Winter Cup Round 2, Collingrove Round 12: 7 July 2103 - OzGymkhana Round 3, Tailem Bend Motorsport Park Round 13: 21 July 2013 - Porsche Club Motorkhana, Mallala Motorsport Park Round 14: 4 August 2013 - Hillclimb, Winter Cup Round 3, Collingrove Round 15: 25 August 2013 - Street Drags, Adelaide International Raceway Round 16: 7 September 2013 - SA Hillclimb Championship, Collingrove Round 17: 15 September 2013 - Street Drag racing (not yet confirmed) Round 18: 29 September 2013 - Porsche Club Supersprint Round 5, Mallala Motorsport Park Round 19: 20 October 2013 - Hillclimb, Multi Club Round 3, Collingrove Round 20: 27 October 2013 - Modern Regularity, Mallala Motorsport Park Round 21: 3 November 2013 - Porsche Club Supersprint Round 6, Mallala Motorsport Park Round 22: 16 November 2013 - Street Drags, Adelaide International Raceway Round 23: 24 November 2013 - Porsche Club Motorkhana, Mallala Motorsport Park
Alan Driver
Points
Name
Round 2 OzGymkhana
Round 4 Motorkhana
Round 5 Mt Alma
Round 6 Collingrove
Round 7 OzGymkhana
67
Garry Dodd
18
18
12
42
Alan Driver
10
11
11
41
Damien Hirst
16
13
12
38
Seth Coultas
12
10
16
23
Matt Knighton
11
20
Rob Gromball
15
Richard Paul
15
Ben Wilden
15
13
David Rowe
13
11
Blake Lee Danher
11
10
Ben Hersey
19 10
12 10
10 15
10
CAMS AWARD DINNER On the 2nd of February CAMS held their awards dinner at AAMI Stadium to celebrate award winners for the 2012 season. This lucky group included one of our very own, Garry Dodd who took 3rd place outright in the State Motorkhana championship and 1st in Class E (4WD), a fantastic effort! 250 guests celebrated Garry and the other winners including the following State Champions: Rally – Driver -Declan Dwyer and Co-Driver Craig Adams Off Road – Driver -Aaron Haby and Navigator Andrew Lyon Autocross – Daniel Day Modern Regularity – Noel Harris Motorkhana – Graham Vanderhoek Dirt Khanacross – Michael Clements Bitumen Khanacross – Simon Feil Formula Vee 1600 – Benjamin Forgan HQ Holden – Neil Corey Improved Production – Robert Vanderkamp Historic Touring Cars 3001cc and over – Neil Oatway Circuit Excel – Shaun Pannowitch
Garry’s Championship haul for 2012
Some of the other major award winners were: David Vaughan, Motor Sport Chaplain received the honour of being awarded the 2012 Australian Motor Sport Official of the Year and also special recognition for 25 years as a Motor Sport Chaplain. Felicity Wood was awarded the 2012 State Motor Sport Official of the Year. Ben Forgan for the second consecutive year took out the SA Racing Driver of the Year. Neil Corey took out the Peter Wright Memorial which is an award in honour of Peter Wright a previous SA & NT CAMS State Manag er. Anthony Rugolo won the 2012 Future Star Award which specifically targets and recognises outstanding achievement and future po tential of a young competitor. With Garry already getting excellent results in both Motorkhana & OzGymkhana this looks to be another lucrative year! Seth Coultas
Damien’s Coastal Bash 2013 By Damien Hirst
Early February saw the now an annual event, Damien’s Coastal Bash abruptly named by Gary Wolstencroft, after I submitted a cruise route to him a few years back. A change from the usual hills cruises and a Saturday evening timeslot brings out the other members who prefer the leisurely drive along Adelaide’s Coastline from Port Adelaide to Sellicks Beach. Organised by Sam Jongenelis, the WRXSA cruise master among other roles, meeting at the Port Adelaide shopping car park, we saw 13 members arrive, newbies and regulars. Departing at 5.30pm and headed over the Port and up Victoria Rd around to the Esplanade at North Haven. The cruise follows the Esplanade as much as possible and is relaxing with plenty to look at with sea views one side and people socializing the other side. The 60km/h, 50km/h and even 40km/h makes a great family outing for WRXSA apart from a few too many speed humps. Always many bystanders stopping to watch our line of Rexes cruise by.
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Along busy Semaphore, bypass West Lakes then back onto esplanade through Grange, Henley and West Beach til we go around ‘the bay’ and down Jetty road. Cut through the back way to Brighton Beach with a short regroup at Seacliff. Around to Marino and zip through to Lonsdale Road making our way to Christies Beach with a good stretch of Esplanade all way to Moana for a regroup. I had my wife Michelle doing the driving for the night while I helped her with directions. Michelle did some great cruising, especially waiting for everyone so no one gets left behind. From Moana, pass Maslin Beach and back to Port Willunga’s Esplanade. Along Aldinga to Silver Sands beach ramp and a highlight of the cruise is where a totally different drive is experienced, cruising the sand along the actual beach to Sellicks.
There’ still a few people bit wary about taking their car on the beach so there’s always an alternative route around to Sellicks Beach for those who wish keep on the tarmac. But believe me, even with my immaculate loved 2 door, I’m all for the drive along the sands. The sand vibrates out on the way home and I always give it a good wash between the guards after anyhow. The tide was going out when we got on the beach and drove most of the way before parking for a group photo shoot with the last of the sunset going down. Unfortunately some cloud cover shaded some of the sunset but still was a great evening and enjoyed by all. When the sun had finally gone around 9pm we all departed our own ways as some of us still had some distance to get home yet. Especially good club commitment from Gareth coming from Gawler, Tania coming a few hours from Murray Bridge and Rhys coming all way (though he was staying Adelaide for the night) from Broken Hill! It was great to hear from a few members that it’s their favourite cruise for the year and thanks to that, next time the cruise will get a quick revamp and change of name, simply to Coastal Cruise.
The New York motor show saw the unveiling of the new, much more aggressive looking WRX 2014 concept car. Presented in a modernised version of the Subaru’s classic Blue called “WR Blue Pearl III” and with neon yellow highlights it looks like a beast of a car. As the official Subaru announcement states:
press
“The WRX concept sedan is low and sleek, with a more powerful design than previous production versions”, indicating that perhaps Subaru is looking to ‘harden u p’ the WRX’s image. Obviously this is only a concept car and only time will tell how the production version will look, with no official word on w hen the launch of the next generation WRX will be, we may be left waiting a while yet. Seth Coultas
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The 17th of February kicked off the first round of the 2013 OzGymkhana Championship. WRXSA was well represented with 6 members competing, Damien Hirst, Garry Dodd, Matt Knighton, Alan Driver, me (Seth) and new member Ben Wilden. For some of us it was our second or third OzGymkhana event but for Alan it was his first time and I have a good feeling he will be back for more. As an extra incentive for us enthusiastic amateurs most of the big names that dominated the two events last year were not in attendance this time. Simon Feil, winner of last year’s championship, was due to compete but had to pull out at the last minute due to m echanical issues. While it was disappointing to not see some of the big name cars in action it opened the competition up to the rest of us and allowed WRXSA members to come away with a healthy swag of points that will come in handy for those that are looking to contes t this year’s OzGymkhana championship. One of the reasons that may have kept the high powered cars away could have been the weather, with temperatures expected to reach the high 30’s or even the low 40’s it has to make people consider the extra strain that will be placed on the cars. With the temperature already climbing for the first run at about 10am we started noticing that the WRX’s were feeling a bit sluggish off the start line. I believe that it might have been Matt or Garry that suggested putting ice from the eskies onto the intercoolers to cool things down a bit, and despite some initial scepticism by the end of the day we were all swearing by it. There were slightly fewer competitors this round, but despite this there was still a healthy field of 42 cars of all makes and models ready to go at the start of the day. The organisers had made an effort to encourage a few more drift cars along and they really put on a great show, displaying some very skilled driving. Unfortunately for them the results proved that smooth clean driving and maintaining traction is always the quickest way around a corner, sorry guys.
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Escaping the heat
Alan Driver
For his first OzGymkhana event Alan put in a great effort, finishing 22nd outright and 3rd in his class. His position was hurt by a couple of ‘Wrong Directions’ and clipping a few cones across the day. When he did get clean runs he came away with some great times, his best was getting the 6th fastest on run 6 near the end of the day. While the layout of the courses can be quite confusing at times, especially when it is your first time out there, with some more practice at future events I am sure Alan will see some very impressive results.
After a bit of a shaky start and some cone penalties, Ben really started laying down some impressive times. Improving all day, his last 3 runs were all clean and in the top 10. This pushed him up into 16th place by the end of the day. As per the state championship round last year the class standings were determined by the total time from 7 rounds of driving that everyone competes in, that is to say it excludes the results of the shoot out at the end of the day. Points for the OzGymkhana championship are also determined by this standing but bonus points are awarded for those in the top 8 based on their placing in the shoot out. At the end of the 7th run Garry was in first place overall closely followed by Damien only 1.56 seconds behind. Both these guys were fast and consistent all day with times never dropping out of the top 6. Garry got the fastest times for 3 of the 7 runs and was placed 1st outright after every single round, meaning that he took out the Modified 4WD Class quite comfortably. Damien however was hot on his heels all day, with his total times never falling more than 3 seconds behind Garry! He may have ‘only’ got 1 of the fastest times of the day but never dropped out of second outright, winning the Standard 4WD Class by just over 22 seconds (ahead of me).
Alan Driver & Matt Knighton
Garry Dodd
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While I didn’t manage to get any of the fastest times for the day, I did manage to finish 5th outright after getting the 4th fastest time on one run and by keeping all but one of my other times in the top 10. In what has to be the comeback of the day Matt also made it into the shootout in 7th place. After a ‘Wrong Direction’ penalty on his first run things were looking grim, but he managed to climb from 28th place up into 7th after 6 very strong runs never finishing below 8th in each run. This meant that half of the top 8 shootout was made up of WRXSA members! The remaining 4 places were made up by Matt Holt in his Nissan Silvia S15, Michael Willis in his EVO9, Chris Bennett in his WRX and Michelle Green in her Ford Escort. Michelle was extremely happy with her result and rightfully so as she is the first lady to get into an OzGymkhana shootout! The shootout puts each of the top 8 back onto a level playing field, giving each driver a chance to take out an overall victory. It also means that a single mistake can turn a driver’s day upside down. The shootout was a repeat of the run 7 layout and is run in 3 elimination rounds with only the fastest times progressing from one round to the next. So in Round 1 only the 4 fastest drivers progress to Round 2 and in a huge upset both Garry and Damien fell from 1st and 2nd into the bottom 4! For Garry all it took was a minor lapse in concentration and he made contact with a pile of tyres, this not only damaged the front of his car but also resulted in a 5 second penalty pushing him down the leader board. Damian was hit with a dreaded ‘Wrong Direction’ penalty automatically relegating him to 8th. It was not how either of these guys were hoping to end the day and it did put a bit of a dampener on the fact that both Matt and myself made it into the top 4 in 1st & 2nd respectively. Round 2 of the shootout was a battle between 3 Classic Subaru’s (Matt, Me & Chris Bennett) against Matt Holt in his S15 Silvia. Our Matt got the fastest time again but Silvia Matt put in a blistering run as well and was only 0.09 seconds slower. There was less than a second in it but that meant I was out, 3rd place was mine and now it was a battle between two Matt’s for outright victory and maximum championship points!
Round 3, tension filled the air, the remaining spectators crowded around the start / finish line full of excitement, discussing what the outcome will be, AWD vs. RWD, Subaru vs. Nissan! This was now the 4th time these two Matt’s had driven this layout, they know where to go, as they sit in their cars they run through their previous runs in their mind looking for where they can improve their time, do you push harder and brake later but risk making a mistake and loosing it all? There is no room for error.
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Silvia Matt goes first, his driving is smooth and controlled. For a RWD car the back end is kept remarkably in check even in the 360 degree doughnut at the end of the course. Did he play it too safe? Time will tell but as spectators we will have to wait. WRXSA Matt pulls up to the start line, the car is still hot from the 3 previous runs, no time for ice on the intercooler, the flag drops and he is away. It’s obvious the pressure is on Matt pushes hard smoking the tyres up on the sharp corners; he is at the final 360 doughnut and plants his foot trying to get into the finish garage that little bit quicker, is it too much?
The seconds tick by as the results are checked, both runs looked good no one can pick a clear winner and then the confirmation comes through over the radio, the Silvia has done it! He managed to pull out the fastest time for the shootout, just over half a second faster than the Subaru. While WRXSA didn’t manage to come away with an outright victory we did have massive presence in the trophy presentations, 2nd & 3rd outright along with 2 class wins. A fantastic result in anyone’s book I would say, can we do it again in round 2, only time will tell… Seth Coultas (Photos by Matt Knighton & Seth Coultas)
WRXSA River Cruise Well this was my first cruise with the club, nervous? YES, not knowing what to expect as all newbies feel. Luck I was one of the first to arrive as I had the pleasure of seeing some fine machines drive in. WRXSA and SSSA combined to an attendance of over 18 cars at the meet, making a great photo opportunity then we were off. Heading east up through the hills towards Lobathal. A nice curvy start to the ride testing out the cars. Some U turns needed due to a road being blocked off for some bike ride (how rude).
For a nubie at cruises and still learning the car, I am very impressed at the handling and grip on the road of my car but super impressed with some of the others. They never looked like missing at some incredible speeds. I had my wife and two kids in the car and apart from them fretting; i had a ki nd of sick grin on my face that craved more. Nice leisurely cruise to Mannum for a catch up and toilet break, time to dry those sweaty palms then Cannonball to Swan Reach via the ferry at Purnong. Lunch at the deli in Swan Reach? NO - CLOSED. Quick skip to the Swan Reach Hotel, YUM.
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The Long Brothers meant business
Story & photos FRANK KUTSCHE
Nice photo opportunity waiting for the ferry back towards Adelaide, then some more high speed Cannonball running hitting the hills into the final stop at Gumeracha. Overall a great day out with the boys and girls of WRXSA and SSSA, and a great day had by all. Big thx to Sam and Seth for arranging the cruise and also big thx for all that turned up on the day, hope you all had fun. Derek Murdoch (Photos by Seth Coultas & Derek Murdoch)
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story & photos FRANK KUTSCHE
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Round 1 of the South Australian Rally Championship, Rallye Wattle Range takes place around the windfarms of Millicent, oceanside at Beachport, Woakwine Station and pine forests nearby. Friday night had 4 short night stages of SEAC Park west of Mt Gambier. The rally proper was on Saturday 27 April. The favourites were Declan Dwyer (Mitsubishi EVO), Gary Brown (Mitsi Galant) and young gun James Rodda (WRX) with Russell Marker sitting out the SARC this year. The field comprised a meagre 31 cars.
Krichauff Brothers churning up the dirt at SEAC Park
Garry Dodd all
I headed down with fellow photographer John Lemm on the Friday 26 April with sufficient time to recce last years stages which the Supp Regs had us believe would be the same, although we knew extra kms had been added. We checked out a previous spot on the Piccaninny where the cars would emerge from the pine forest over some lumpy ground before tackling rough ground of a farm adjacent. We also checked out the Beachport Scenic Drive stage again which would be first up on Saturday. God was the sea angry! Maybe the anger was meant for the rally! Down at Rally HQ at Millicent Showgrounds we met Lionel Stingers, the organiser for the rally with his bunch of merry SEAC helpers to find out any changes to the stages. Piccaninny stage would Someones a little excited & anxious be run in reverse from last year and changes to the route as well…Oh well, our recce was a waste of time (Above) Gary Brown/Mike Dale & (Below) Simon & Yvette West on Scenic Drive at Beachport and we would now have to do a brief recce the next morning. Last years oddly named Poonada stage (pronounced Poonnnnnnn-nardda, not Poo-narda) was also reverses and extra kms through a farm amongst the monster wind turbines….oh well there went last year‟s spot as well. Stoney Lane stage had changed somewhat with some additional kms being added so that was definitely where our money was on. After losing last year‟s good spot, we instead scored a choice of 3 good ones on Stoney Lane stage with easy access. The first spot was OK, but the other two left us thinking we would need to toss a coin to decide. Having already dumped our gear in the motel room in Millicent we steered the Forester Rally Chase Car towards the SEAC track at Mt Gambier. This is a purpose built Autocross track owned by the South Eastern Automobile Club. The track is an old sand quarry and comprises a looping circuit totalling 1.98kms on the racing line, but 2.02km centre of track by one of the cheeky locals (Autocross tracks must be max. 2kms) It was quite dark at rally start time so very little time to hunt for good photo spots on a track we didn‟t know. John had a shocker with his lens refusing to focus so retreated to the hospitality area to sulk for the evening. I managed to cover the whole track as the drivers had to negotiate it 4 times for plenty of opportunities. I stumbled upon the bridge and tunnel….beats Lanac Park hands down! Lucky for full moon too so no tripping over tyres and things in the dark!
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(Left) Tyson Brown/Mark Chaplin & (Right) Nev Whittlebury at SEAC Park
Barry & Helen-Pearl Lowe cutting through the sand on Beachport‟s Scenic Drive
Andrew Burnard‟s roo damage led to retirement The local driver Gary Brown would be the master of SEAC Park and after the 4 stages had a 5 sec lead over favourite Declan Dwyer with James Rodda a further 6 secs behind Dwyer. Several drivers were within 4 secs of this group. The fastest lap belonged to Gary Brown with 2 laps clocking 1min 51secs. Local Jeremy Miatke rolled his Commodore on the second run through and looked like he was out for the rally. The Gehans in their WRX did not front up to start SEAC 3 (SS 3) due to gearbox problems, and co-driver Damian Reed brought his gearbox curse to Wayne Mason‟s Escort which did not finish SEAC 4. The most unusual car entered was a bright orange ute of local Mick Argoon which was a crowd favourite.
Brown & Chaplin lookin‟ the goods on Piccaninny
Bennett & Rowe passing the Casey Brothers
Simon & Yvette West with all 4 wheels churning
The Saturday morning saw the rally cars lined up in the main street of Beachport (awesome support from the town) and a big breaky put on the drivers and co-drivers. The Commodore of Miatke was back having had miracle surgery overnight and sporting some non-matching panels. One spectator was heard to say that would be the last people would see the ute with straight panels as it would be trashed in the forest.
John and I headed out to our media-only spot on the Scenic Drive stage and waited, and noticed the sea was far less angry today and also it was less windy with no sea spray and glare to deal with and wrecking shots like the day before. It would be an awesome day for the rally….or would it? On Scenic Drive 1 & 2 (SS 5& 6) Gary Brown crushed the opposition pulling 5secs and 3secs off Declan Dwyer to assert his intentions for the rally, nut hey, he‟s a local! James Rodda was the best of the rest but substantially slower than Brown by 13secs and 14secs for both the stages. The Krichauffs were consistent in 5th place with Paul Heenan & Andrew Kreisl (Brown‟s team mate) in 4th place. Newcomer to rallying Tyson Brown from Yorketown in a WRX was in a surprising 6th place with other newcomers Jamie Pohlner 7 th (WRX). Martin Grigg (Mitsi EVO) equal 8th with Simon and Yvette West (WRX). Dave McDonough in the „booby‟ EVO did not start due to his navigator cutting his head on the service tent (the oddest retirement ever?). John Lemm joked that Lyndon Wilson would do anything to avoid co-driving for Dave ;-). The first real stage of length would be next running over fast flowing roads through the Woakwine Station northeast of Beachport. Results from Woakwine stage showed the angry sea omen would start to bite with many casualties as 4 cars left the rally. Gary Brown way out in front failed to finish the stage due to a broken tail shaft as the old girl Galant is starting to show her age, Smith in the yellow RX7 did not start, Michael Busby in a series 4 RX7 suffered overheating. Grigg in the yellow Mitsi EVO was also out with broken front suspension. Peter Jones in the orange Datsun 180B did a head gasket. The Rally was down to 20 cars!
Locals Cagney & Moore in their Datto on Piccaninny
Brown and Chaplin mixing it up on „that‟ sloppy corner on Piccaninny
Declan Dwyer & Craig Adams leading on Piccaninny before their big off
The monster 32km Piccaninny stage through pine forests was next. Before arriving at Beachport we had checked out spots along the main road found a nice chopped up corner with a rough rise exiting followed by a downhill drop on the other side along the edge of the forest. We noticed the absence of Gary Brown, effectively handing the rally on a plate to favourite Declan Dwyer. Many of the cars had some difficulty in the softy loamy soil at the corner but none more than the drift pig of the Casey boys who got bogged and then beached reversing out. Jamie Robertson and Chris Bennet managed to squeeze by them without getting bogged themselves as OLD people helped to dig the car out and push it out of the way. The front wheel drive cars struggled the most as they had the steep rise after the soft corner.
NEW
Piccaninny took its toll with the Daihatsu Charade of Powell getting a hole punched through the gearbox. The Wests dropped a coil pack early on and they haemorrhaged time through this long stage. The biggest casualty was Declan Dwyer. Declan said coming off an off camber rise he made a nose-heavy landing in sand, which damaged the intercooler, tore off the sumpguard, bent the front subframe and caused other fairly major damage. He says the he will struggle to be ready for ROSA. Very disappointed as he was hoping to take it (again) to the ARC 4WDs. Dwyer limped through the stage and we saw the car parked on the highway with the OK board out but no idea that he was actually out. The event was now being led by young gun James Rodda, followed by the Krichauffs 18secs behind, and Heenan close to 1½ mins further adrift. Barry Lowe in the green Commodore was in 4th, and newcomer Pohlner was in 6th . Chris Bennet had cut into the top 10 in 10th . Would James Rodda hold it all together for a maiden win? That was the big question. A total of 16 cars remained in the rally.
Krichauff boys sliding past on Stoney Lane stage
Local Mick Argoon‟s Holden Ute was popular
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We had sufficient time to test shoot the 3 rd spot on Stoney Lane and realise its limitations. So it was back to spot No. 2 which had a rather „New Zealandesque‟ look to it. A backdrop of ubiquitous wind turbines and flowing undulating roads leading to a sweeping right hander where the local cockies had parked themselves for the afternoon. The stage didn‟t actually look like happening as 10 minutes after the official road closure time a car of officials finally arrived to close off the road with bunting. This photo spot was chosen as it offered multiple angles and viewpoints to shoot. Meanwhile Poonada stage to the south was being run first, and became a firm favourite amongst the dwindling number of drivers and teams. Results from Poonada (SS9) showed Rodda ahead of Krichauffs by 21secs with the gap between them and Heenan getting larger. Chris Bennet moved up another spot to 9th (what the…?, this would be his best finish if he continued this way).
James Rodda & David Langfield on the way to a well deserved maiden win in the SARC, here on Stoney Lane stage
The wind had really picked up and the reason for windfarms became obvious! The skies threatened rain. James Rodda excelled on Stoney Lane stage and kept the margin at 24secs from the Krichauffs, with many drivers holding station, except Burnard in the white and fluorescent green EVO succumbing to overheating and out of the event. With this Chris Bennet moved up to 8th , and 15 cars were left. Stringybark stage followed and the only changes in the leaderboard were Barry Lowe giving up 4th place to Pohlner in the WRX.
Chris Bennet miraculously grabbed 7th place from Geoff Hobby in the 2 wheel drive Toyota. The red mist was definitely happening or was it the expert navigating of Dave Rowe as well? Still not time to celebrate quite yet as there was still Woakwine and a shortened Piccaninny stage to run in the dark, and as all rally fans know that‟s when a rally can be won or lost if someone has the balls. John and I chose to have a sumptuous Italian meal at Gino‟s pizza and pasta emporium in Millicent rather than venture north into the potential rainy night stage of Piccaninny, and risk having to find slim pickings at the emergency food stop at the Caltex servo later. (footnote: The Krichauff kids got the pizza I was eyeing off on Friday night as we stood in the queue ;-). Heenan & Kreisl driving to a surprising 3rd outright Rowe & Raggatt went on to take 6th place off Bennet & Rowe
Brian Catt & Shane Miller out amongst the wind turbines
This more leisurely approach gave us the opportunity to see how the officials back at Rally HQ worked with the timesheets coming in from the stages and being entered into the spreadsheet for the results. When we arrived Chris Bennet had secured yet another position to be in 6th place with only the long and scary forest run through Piccaninny. Would he and Dave Rowe emerge the other side with an awesome and totally unexpected (by all) 6th place? First things first James Rodda did indeed show a lot of maturity and determination to secure his maiden rally win in the SARC. Rodda (WRX) finished over 2mins ahead of the Krichauffs (WRX), who in turn finished 1min 23secs ahead of Heenan in the Mitsi Galant. All three teams were extremely happy with their unexpected results. Pohlner (WRX) recorded an excellent 4th with vastly experienced Barry Lowe bringing home the Commodore in 5th place. Now, 6th place….no, Chris Bennet did not keep 6th place but finished in 7th, instead choosing to bring the car safely home through the car breaker Piccaninny stage. Awesome result guys and thanks for the Port later in the post mortem! Young driver Paul Rowe in an old Liberty grabbed the 6th spot. In the end 13 cars finished this tough rally out of the 31 starters. The most interesting point to James Rodda winning the rally, is that it was a new engine, the car being put together from a shell only 3 weeks before the event! James was quoted as saying he thought he would be out of the event after the SEAC stages! It was a very popular win by all drivers and great to see the camaraderie in SA Rallying.
Stone the Crows!.... well, Carlton, & Pohlner & Judd have something in common then
A huge thanks goes to Lionel Stingers and his SEAC team for putting on this excellent event, pity he can only get 30 cars to this rally, but 200 interested parties to Legend of the Lakes Hillclimb! As Andrew Admiraal of SDCC was quoted as saying “I just love these guys”. RD
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Goolwa Cruise
WRXSA gather on a cloudy Sunday morning hopping the rain holds off so we can get some 'drivin on'. Watching more and more car s roll into the car park turns into a great attendance of 13 Club Cars. After a nice chat we were off heading south on the express way, warming the cars up on the way to Clarendon. The 2nd and 3rd gear certainly got a work out through the southern hills of Adelaide. Some nice hairy turns and cornering happening on the way to Hindmarsh Island. The group did well keeping together apart from the odd car stopping for a 'smoke' he he. Quick look at the Murray Mouth then to the pub in Goolwa for a quick bite, Shout out to the WW1 Dragon plane giving us a clos e encounter too. Funny how karma hits as the pub had a dragon working there, the pub shall remain nameless. Filling up the drivers and cars in Goolwa we were off on the way home, thx to the silver Excel for the send-off to some of the back markers, close encounters I hear. Cruising the back roads towards town with some very nice downhill driving mixed with some awesome views that most of us would have missed unfortunately.
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Photos by Jeremy Porter
Was great weather throughout the day mixed with a fantastic attendance, hats off to all that made the effort to come out. I am sure we all had fun today and only encourage more members to come along for a ride.
Derek Murdoch (Photos from Brad Halliday and Derek Murdoch)
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ROUND 2
WRXSA just can’t get enough of the OzGymkhana events; at least I know I can’t! After the fantastic success of round 1 where half of the top 8 were WRXSA members; round 2 saw 7 members come out to Tailem Bend to compete (plus one or two to have a look). It was clear from the entry list released a few days ahead of the event that some of the big names in Adelaide motorsport didn’t want to miss out on the action and glory this time. With last year’s state champion Simon Feil joined by the likes of Graham Davidson & Craig Van Diemen bringing their full Rally spec. cars out to play. These guys don’t mess around and they have the hardware to back them up. But this only made the final results all the more sweeter. Representing WRXSA for the first time at OzGymkhana were David Rowe & Blake Lee Danher. Blake had a good day with no penalties (a great effort for his first event) and finished in 17th place out of a field of 53. David did even better with 3 times in the top 10 gaining him 8th place outright and entry into the shootout at the end of the day! (It’s just a shame he was driving an EVO) It was the second time out for Ben Wilden and Rob Gromball who had mixed results. Rob’s position was hurt by a Wrong Directio n (WD) penalty on his second run and was unable to recover, finishing in 38th place. Better luck next time Rob, at least you got som e cool photos. Ben on the other hand had a cracking day with 3 times in the top 10 and never falling below 10th outright all day. Entering the shootout he was in a healthy 6th place.
Damien Hirst entered round 2 of the championship looking to continue his success from round 1 but in a terrible turn of event s made a split second decision that would cost him his chance of entering the shootout. In his very first run he overshot the finish garage and tried to correct it by reversing backwards. This immediately incurred a WD penalty and pushed him down to 52nd place. From there he di d his best to recover, with times in the top 10 for the remaining 4 runs including 3rd fastest in run 5. He gained an amazing 37 places by the end of the day, but it was not enough and he finished in 15th place. Then we get to Garry Dodd and myself; OzGymkhana super-fans, neither of us have missed a round yet and the practice appears to be paying off. My times while not the fastest still kept me in the top 10 all day, coming into the last run I knew I was right o n the cusp of getting into the shootout as I was sitting in 9th place outright. Looking at the times I was only 1 second behind Ben who was at the time in 8th place so I was still in with a chance. As it turned out the last full run was very eventful. First of all fellow Subaru driver Graham Davidson, who was sitting in first place outright almost all day, made a mistake at the back of the course and was hit with a WD. This pulled him all the way down to 22nd place outright and well out of contention for the shoo tout! This was great for me as it opened a place up in the shootout, I was in! Then the drama continued with Craig Van Diemen, who was battl ing with Graham all day for first place also making a wrong turn going left down one of the service roads when he was supposed to go s traight. He immediately noticed his mistake and in a cloud of tyre smoke was able to quickly turn around and go back in the right directi on, it cost him a significant amount of time (he was only 38th fastest on that run) but it was better than the WD penalty that Graham had recei ved and thanks to the significant margin he had built up beforehand (a total of 27 seconds ahead of 8th place) he managed to keep hol d of a top 8 placing. But wait there is more! The very next car after Craig was Simon Feil who suffered mechanical failure and was bumped out of co ntention as well! The result of all this drama meant that both David & I were now also in the shootout! Meanwhile, Garry had been perform ing excellently all day with times never falling below 6th fastest meaning that after all the final round drama he entered the top 8 shootout in 2nd place. Once again WRXSA held 4 of the top 8 positions!
Unlike round 1 in February this shootout round was done on a brand new layout and it was a doozy! A combination of fast sweeping sections, multiple doughnuts, a ‘freestyle’ 360 box, tight hairpin turns and figure eights it not only tested a driver’s car control it also pushed the limits of your ability to memorise a brand new complicated layout. Given all his Motorkhana experience Garry took to it better than most, getting the second fastest time in the first eliminati on round. Unfortunately due to a misunderstanding to do with what direction the ‘freestyle’ box had to be approached Garry was g iven a WD and had to be content with 4th outright. This is still an amazing effort considering the level of competition and som ething Garry should be extremely proud of. The rest of us were unable to improve our existing positions of 6th (Ben Wilden), 7th (me ) and 8th (David Rowe), but I was extremely happy with that. The final standings were Lachlan Smith (180SX) in 3rd, Michael Willis (EVO 9) in 2nd and Craig Van Diemen (EVO 8 RS) in 1st. While we may not have made it to the podium this round, WRXSA still took home 2 trophies as me and Garry both won our respective classes. Congratulations go out to all the winners for some very impressive driving, and as always spare a though for all the volunteers that donated all their time to setup, run and then pack up what was another awesome day of competition. If you would like to see what all the fuss is about the next round is on the 7th of July, hopefully I will see you there! Seth Coultas (Photos by: Frank Kutsche, Garry Dodd & Seth Coultas)
Expert Tips from Garry on the layout for the shootout.
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Remembering Possum Bourne - 10 Years on. Tuesday the 30th of April marked the 10th anniversary of Peter ‘Possum’ Bourne’s passing. He was New Zealand's most successful rally driver with a driving career spanning two decades. Starting out as an apprentice mechanic Possum’s first motorsport event was the Woodhill Forest Rally in 1979 in a Rover V8 powered Mk1 Ford Cortina. Surprising everyone he took 3rd outright and gained the attention of spectators and fellow competitors. With the help of his local Pukekohe Car Club he entered his first Rally of New Zealand in 1981, this time driving a Mazda RX-3. His exploits in 1981 and 1982 gained the attention of Subaru New Zealand who gave him an opportunity to drive a brand new Subaru RX Coupe. After winning the Group A Class in 1983 Subaru Japan provided some factory support leading to additional Group A wins in 1984 & 1985 .
In 1986 he got his first overseas drive on the Kenyan round of the World Rally Championship. And finished 11th overall. With increased support from Subaru he was able to compete in more WRC events and gained some very good results. In 1990 Subaru introduced the Legacy, with a high powered 2 litre turbo charged engine and full-time AWD it helped Possum improve his results, and take 1st place in the 1991 New Zealand Rally Championship. In 1993 his continued success saw him be invited to join the factory 555 Subaru World Rally Team, and in 1994 the all mighty Impreza WRX made it’s first rally appearance. 1995 did not go as well as hoped for Possum and at the end of the season his time in the 555 World Rally Team had come to an end.
But that was no reason to call it a day! With the support of Subaru Australia he went on to win the 1996 Australian Rally Championship. This was followed by domination of the championship with back to back championship wins that would see Possum become the most successful rally driver ever in the Australian Championship. His unbeatable winning streak continued all the way to 2002, whe n Subaru Japan finally took notice again and offered him a chance to drive an all new Group N Subaru Impreza STI internationally. Tragically the next year, whilst preparing for the ‘Race To The Sky’ event in New Zealand he was involved in an accident with another car that had strayed onto the wrong side of the road. He sustained serious head injuries and 12 days after the accident the decision was made to switch off his life support. A bronze statue now stands in his home town of Pukekohe to commemorate New Zealand's greatest rally driver. Seth Coultas
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